Olive's grows on Witherspoon

A bustling lunch-hour throng swept into Olive's Deli & Bakery yesterday afternoon, ready to munch on spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves and the store's signature chocolate chip cookies.

Though the building was packed with customers, it would have filled more quickly two weeks ago, before Olive's — a favorite haunt of townies and students alike — moved to a temporary location next door to its original store at 22 Witherspoon St.

The space under construction will open in late March, when the two addresses will be merged into a larger Olive's designed to accommodate more customers, including a dinner crowd.

"We really have a mix of just everybody coming here — people from the town, [University] staff and especially students," manager Georgiana Diskin said.

The expansion is only the latest in a series of moves the Olive's management has made to improve business. Since 1997, Olive's has offered a seven percent student discount to encourage business at its Witherspoon Street store. In 2000, Olive's began selling meals and desserts at the U-Store. It also caters University functions almost daily.

"More people were coming to the store because we've grown so much over the years," Diskin said. "We did [the expansion] to work better and serve our customers better."

Entering the newly renovated side, one is greeted by a savory display of Olive's cakes, pastries and muffins on the right. Further down, the heated food and delicatessen open up toward the rear. The added space will allow for an expansion of the warm food counter to emphasize what will become a larger dinner menu, though Olive's will not introduce new seating.

"People already like their cookies," Ashley Johnson '08 said. "They're amazingly good, like a heart attack in a cookie."

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U-Store employee Jeff Rogers said that, though the refrigerated case housing Olive's produce is restocked twice daily, it is nearly emptied every day during his evening shift. "Olive's sells good food," said U-Store marketing manager Virginia France. "For anybody that likes their food, it's better to get it here than go all the way into town."

The Angelakis and Verganelakis families opened Olive's in 1995. They expanded into Princeton from Washington Crossing, Penn., where they own Colonial Farms, a specialty gourmet food store, Diskin said.

"[Olive's] is owned by everybody, all the families together," she said.

Princeton resident and 12-year patron of Olive's Lynne Mendenko remembered the restaurant's humble origins as a small bakery and deli. She added that she is glad to hear about the expansion and wishes the restaurant well as it strives to garner new customers.